WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for October 31

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, UNICEF warns that one in seven children is exposed to severe air pollution, Tesla has revealed its new solar power generating roof tiles, Samsung sets its sights on the future Galaxy Note S8 and more.

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In a new report, UNICEF warns that one in seven of the world's children – a total of around 300 million – live in areas where outdoor air pollution is more than six times higher than international guidelines (The New York Times). The Clear the Air for Children report draws on satellite imagery to reveal the extent of the severe air pollution, which is at its worst in South Asia. Report author Nicholas Rees told The New York Times that "children are uniquely vulnerable because their lungs are still developing. Early exposure to toxic air has lifelong consequences for them."

Tesla has announced a new range of solar tiles, designed to replace standard roof files and simultaneously generate solar electricity, without the structural and aesthetic issues presented by traditional solar panels (Ars Technica). The tiles, which are available in four finishes designed to mimic standard roofing materials, generate 98% the electricity of a standard panel, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the firm is working with 3M on new coatings to improve efficiency, potentially allowing the tiles to in future exceed the energy output of typical panels. The tiles are designed to feed power to Tesla's new Powerwall 2, but it's thought that their release to consumers will depend on whether or not Tesla and SolarCity investors agree with Musk's plan for Tesla to buy the solar energy firm.

I tried to keep my unborn child secret from Facebook and Google

Racked by falling profits and the recall of its unexpectedly explosive Galaxy Note 7, Samsung has moved its focus to the forthcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone (TechCrunch). Moreover, the company promises that, in South Korea at least, customers who swapped their Note 7 for an S7 will be offered a competitive trade-up deal on the new S8 and Note 8 phones when they come out. The S8 doesn't yet have a release date, but the next generation of Samsung phones promise a chassis redesign, improved camera and an upgraded AI assistant.

Following the announcement that Twitter will be shutting down Vine, PornHub has offered to buy the six second video service (TheNextWeb). In a letter revealed to CNET, PornHub vice president Corey Price told Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that "we figure since Twitter has dropped (Vine) and is having significant layoffs, that you and your stakeholders could benefit from a cash infusion from the sale of Vine. Not to mention we would be saving Vine gems like 'Damn Daniel,' 'Awkward Puppets' and many more", adding that "porn in six seconds is more than enough time for most people to enjoy themselves". While the move is clearly a humorous attempt to grab publicity at Twitter's expense, Vine's 200 million active users would probably welcome a chance of salvaging the service.

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Facebook-owned VR firm Oculus is advertising for over 100 new staff to work on its new push into augmented reality, as well as to participate in the ongoing development of its Rift virtual reality headset (VentureBeat). Oculus spokesperson Brandon Boone said that the company was expanding its research and development in fields including "Hardware (Optical, Electrical, and Mechanical), Computer Vision, Platform and Applications Software" and said that, as well as continuing to develop software for the Rift and Samsung GearVR, unspecified "future devices" were on the horizon for the firm.

In a landmark legal case, a British tribunal has ruled that Uber drivers are employed by the company and are thus entitled to the national minimum wage, a minimum level of paid holiday, rest breaks and the right to "not work more than 48 hours on average per week" (WIRED). Uber had maintained that its drivers were self-employed and as such were not entitled to those rights. Trade union GMB, which represents professional drivers, won the case against the on-demand car company and the decision could affect up to 30,000 of its drivers in England and Wales.

We won't know if screen time is a hazard until Facebook comes clean

Following the revelation that EA has blocked access to its Origin games service from anywhere in Myanmar, a spokesperson for the company as said that it will be restoring access (Polygon). Speaking to Polygon an EA representative said that "we are working to restore access to Origin for our players in Myanmar. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we’ll share updates on timing as soon as possible." EA hasn't stated why the country's entire population has been blocked from using Origin since September.

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Steam users who've bought Splinter Cell: Blacklist in the Steam Halloween sale have found that they're unable to run the game because Steam has run out of licences (Kotaku). Although Steam sells the game, publisher Ubisoft still requires an additional key to be registered with it before players can run Blacklist. These are issued by a key server, but the game has been reporting that it's unable to contact the key server: a phenomenon that Steam's support page says means that the service has run out of keys due to popular demand. However, gamers are assured that "you will be issued a key as soon as we have been given more by the game's publisher".

Staff at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab have taken to Twitter to show off their out-of-this-world pumpkin carving abilities (Kotaku). JPL's sixth annual pumpkin carving contest includes entries from pumkins with fully-functional orreries built into them to electronically animated jack-in-the-box claw traps. More photos and videos of the contest are available on Flickr.

To celebrate Halloween, Google's always-entertaining doodle contains an addictive little game, played across five levels, that follows feline magician Momo as she sets out to save Magic Cat Academy from ghosts (The Verge). You have to help Momo cast spells to destroy the ghosts by using your mouse to draw symbols matching those floating above their heads. As the game progresses, the symbol strings get more complicated, increasing the challenge and making the most of the clever gameplay mechanic.

Europe is becoming a thorn in the side of Silicon Valley's biggest technology companies. Concerns have been raised about major companies' tax arrangements and now the commission is raising problems with privacy problems. Data protection officials across Europe have "serious concerns" with the way WhatsApp told its users their personal details, including phone numbers, would be shared with Facebook. In August, the one-billion-member messaging app announced changes to its privacy policy that would allow it to share customer information with parent-company Facebook.

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